In conventional printed circuit boards (PCBs), the components are placed on one side of the PCB and soldered on the other. More specifically, the component leads are inserted into holes through the PCB and connected to the solder pads by wave soldering on the reverse side. In hybrid circuits, chips, i.e., leadless components, are reflow soldered onto the ceramic or glass substrate in addition to the components already integrated on the substrate. Surface mount technology evolved from these two techniques, wherein surface mount devices (SMDs) are directly attached to the surface of the PCB and then soldered. SMDs are designed with soldering pads or short leads, can be attached to both sides of the board and are much smaller than comparable leaded components.
With the advent of surface mount technology, methods to repair SMD boards have gained considerable importance. A response to the special needs in repairing such boards is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,101 which is directed to tapered tip style soldering/de-soldering tips and which is hereby incorporated herein. These surface mount repair tips are designed for specific surface mount device types. Since a circuit assembly incorporates a variety of SMDs, numerous tapered tip styles, each having a different configuration, are necessary to repair these assemblies. Typically, repairs on complex boards require removal of several SMDs which may require the operator to change from one tip style to another. An operator can possibly use up to five tips on a single assembly. These tips typically take at least five minutes to cool down. If the operator uses pliers to remove the hot tip, damage to the tip can result that would reduce the effective life of the tip. On the other hand, if the operator waits until the tip cools before changing to another tip, valuable production time is lost. The operator also must find the appropriate tip style for the job at hand. This can be time consuming because the operator must search among numerous tips styles, many of which are not readily distinguishable, for the appropriate tip. Thus, there is a need to provide a device to attach and/or remove tips to or from the soldering iron without damaging the tip. There is also the need to provide a device that can store the tips such that each tip style can be immediately recognized.